Convenient, networked and sustainable solutions for charging BEVs. Wayne Gerdes – CleanMPG – March 19, 2022 2022 VW ID.3 Charging on the Ionity DCFC Network Outside of Tesla, VW is the second high-volume manufacturer to offer its customers a universal and seamless eco-system for charging their electric models. The service with the name “We Charge” will be enhanced step-by-step to offer higher performance, convenience and sustainability with new charging solutions for home and mobile charging and soon, bidirectional charging. Like all OEMs, VW is attempting to convince future owners that an EV is capable of being your primary car without compromises. Charging at home – Electrically powered VW models can already be conveniently charged in the garage at home. Customers can choose between a basic and two fully networked ID Home charger variants which can be controlled using the “We Connect” ID. App. Mobile charging – Just like the Porsche Taycan, Audi e-tron GT RS, and Ford Mustang Mach-E we have driven recently, Plug & Charge is the future. With the “We Charge” charging card, customers already have access to the Ionity Network, one of the largest DCFC networks in Europe. Over 270,000 L1, L2, and DCFC public charging locations are already connected. And this number is increasing by the day. By 2025, VW plans to install around 18,000 DCFCers in Europe. These will be supplemented by approximately 35,000 charging points that will be established with publicly accessible retail partners. In 2022, Volkswagen’s ID. models will include encrypted and secure communication between the car and charging station as soon as the customer plugs in the charging cable. This authentication process takes just a few seconds before charging starts. Billing then functions in the usual way via the We Charge contract. In 2022, Plug & Charge will be possible in the networks of Ionity, Aral, bp, Enel, EON as well as Iberdrola and eviny. Discussions are ongoing with other major partners. The next level – Intelligent and bidirectional charging are coming. A Home Energy Management System (HEMS) is a prerequisite for intelligent charging at home. This system can stagger and manage their power supply intelligently. The main benefit of this is that it makes charging with self-generated solar power even easier for owners of photovoltaic systems. The algorithms already make it possible to charge the car at the point at which a lot of renewable energy is available. This means, for example, that wind turbines won’t need to be shut down because there isn’t anyone using them. In 2019 alone, 6,500 GWhs of renewable energy went unused in Germany – enough to have powered 2.7 million electric cars for a year. But the potential is even greater in combination with bidirectional charging where electric cars can feed electricity they don’t need into the customer’s home network (vehicle-to-home) and in the future they will also provide electricity to stabilize the grid. All ID. models with a 77-kWh battery will have this capability in future. An over-the-air update rolled out gradually will be used to make this available for vehicles already delivered as well. A special DC BiDi wallbox will be used for the power transfer and communication. In the near future, all European ID. models will leave the production line with a new software version that offers significant charging benefits. The maximum power rating for the 77-kWh battery will increase from 125 to 135 kW (or 150 kW for the ID.5 GTX). This will cut the charging time by up to nine minutes when charging from 5 to 80 percent SOC (state of charge). These improvements will be activated in already delivered customer vehicles by means of an over the air software update. There is also a new Battery Care Mode that ensures maximum protection of the battery. This restricts the upper charge level (SOC) to 80 percent. The charging menu will also be structured in a more informative and clearer way. The Online Route Calculation function in the navigation system performs intelligent multi-stop route planning for long journeys so that the vehicle can reach the destination as quickly as possible. The function uses traffic and route data as well as the desired charge level at the destination for this purpose. The charging stops are evaluated dynamically on the basis of the charging station capacity and occupancy level. As a result, the route planning function may suggest two short charging operations with high power instead of a long charging stop with low power. VW has been supporting the expansion of renewable energies by means of new wind and solar farms in Europe. The goal here is to additionally generate and feed into the grid the amount of green electricity that the vehicles of the ID. family need for operation and that is not already charged by customers in the form of green power. It is planned to build around 20 new installations by 2025. By 2025, around 20 new projects are to be created, which cumulatively generate around seven terawatt hours of additional green electricity by 2025. Volkswagen will invest around 40 million euros for this by 2025. The overall goal is complete electrification of the new vehicle fleet. By 2030, at least 70 percent of VW’s sales in Europe will come from fully electric vehicles, which is equivalent to significantly more than one million vehicles. In North America and China, the goal is that electric vehicles will account for at least 50 percent of unit sales. To achieve these goals, Volkswagen will launch at least one electric vehicle onto the market every year.
